TEXAS SCHOOL OFFICIAL SHOT
Col. J.C. Edmonds Killed at Bastrop - Prominent Man Suspected.
BASTROP, Texas, Feb. 1.--- Col. J.C. Edmonds, Superintendent of Public Schools for this district, was shot and killed in front of the Post Office here today.
There is great excitement, and a prominent citizen of Bastrop is suspected of having committed the crime. No arrests have been made.
Dallas (Texas) Morning News, 2 Feb 1907:
News was received here today that Col. J. C. Edmonds had been shot and killed in Bastrop.
Mr. Edmonds had lived in this city a number of years ago and has visited here often, having hundreds of friends. Mrs. Edmonds, wife of deceased, is here on a visit to her two daughters, Mrs. W. P. McGaughey and Mrs. Byron Mock, and her mother, Mrs. J. M. McLeod.
The remains will be shipped here tomorrow for burial.
Col. Edmonds was born in 1847 in Alexandria, Fairfax County, Virginia.
At the age of fifteen, he became a soldier in the Confederate Army, enlisting in Mosby's command, where even at that early age, he made a brilliant record as soldier, as testified by John W. Munson in his "Recollections of a Mosby Guerrilla" published in a magazine article during the year 1904, the Johnnie Edmonds so often mentioned in that interesting recording being Col. J. C. Edmonds, when a mere stripling but gallant and brave in boyhood as he was high-minded and honorable as a man.
After the war, young Edmonds attended the Virginia Military Institute, graduating in the year 1872. He came to Texas in 1878 and settled in Greenville, where he engaged in teaching with much success.
While living in Greenville, he married Miss Dixie Spencer and sometime after was elected President of Austin College, Sherman, Texas. He served in that position for a number of years after which he was elected Major of Sherman, in which capacity he served term after term continuously until the breaking out of the Spanish-American War when he was appointed Colonel of the Fourth Texas Regiment and served as such until the close of the war.
Col. Edmonds was then appointed commander of cadets in the Agricultural and mechanical College, Bryan, Texas. After serving as such for two years, he was elected Superintendent of the Bastrop City Schools, Bastrop, Texas, and in this position, he served until his death, which occurred today.
His wife, one son, and three daughters survive him, Newton Claxton Edmonds residing in Memphis, Tennessee; Mrs. W. P. McGaughey, and Mrs. Bryon Mock, both of Greenville, Texas, and Miss Lucile Edmonds.
Prominent Education Murdered in Texas
Superintendent of Schools at Bastrop Killed in Front of Post Office
Bastrop, Texas, February 1, 1907---Col. J. C. Edmonds, superintendent of the public schools of this city, was shot and killed in front of the post office here today. R. A. Brooks, an attorney and assistant postmaster, has been arrested and charged with the killing. No announcement as to the cause has been made.
Edmonds was about forty-five and had been superintendent there for about five years. Enrollment was about 152.
